Searching for cannibals in Papua, (Baliem river, Wamena, Indonesia vlog)
Are there still or are there not cannibals in Papua New Guinea? In order to explore the deep jungles of the earth's second biggest island you need lots of time and resources. The easiest way, but still of the beaten path is to travel to the isolated town of Wamena, on the river Baliem, in the indonseian half of the island.
Searching for canibals in Papua, (Baliem river, Wamena, Indonesia vlog)
Getting to Wamena is possible only by plane from Jayapura.
Airport means good old crowded indonesian style and plane means in most of the cases little propeller aircrafts. Basically like a flying bus, still more comfortable then the next vehicle you will be travelling with: the 3 wheeled BECAK with 1 ManPower!
First thing you have to do is getting your travel permit (SURAT JALAN) for exploring the area.
For start, we joined Jörn, an very cool friend from Germany for a day trip to the norther Baliem valley. Contilola Caves were the first on the list and luckily you can hitchike the few kilometres of tarred road outside Wamena.
From the caves we want to go see the mummy of Wo'ogi. The trek was an adventure itself. 2 papuan kids took their role as guides very seriously.
Wo'ogi didn't meet our expectations at all. No cannibals and no mummy. In fact everything is more modern than expected, excepting the lack of electricity, roads, cell phone coverage or people speaking any foreign language.
The only chance for us to see a smoked corpse of a 300-year old chieftain nicknamed mummy and used as a source of income for the locals was the village of Jiwika. It's a rip-off!
Next day the big adventure begins. This time we leave Wamena by BEMO. The southern Baliem Valley is the ultimate place do treks form 2 days to 2 weeks to visit remote villages of the Dani and Yali tribes, farther and further away from the civilised world. 50 years ago many Dani were still living in Stone Age conditions and even practicing cannibalism.
Wamena is isolated from the rest of the island and outside the town the road ends for good at Kurima, from where you are free to choose your route to walk further.
It can be very costy if you will hire a guide/cook/porter beginning from 100 USD for a day BUT don't let yourself be talked into it. Hard, but you can manage to get alone by yourself. Carry some food, a good map or a navigation app and for god's sake, learn some indonesian words!
Jörn joins us just for a few hours, then he returns to Wamena.
We decided to stay overnight in the village of Hitugi, far enough from civilization. Our host is a 13-years old boy, Andy, whos parents are gone in a big city for work.
The toilet looks very inviting, the shower is 100% natural and the kitchen is a hut with hay on the floor with a hole where the fire burns.
The next day Andy and his friend want to be our guides upriver to Yuarima, the most remote place we will be.
As further you go from Wamena, the less traces of civilisation you will see. If you can afford the thousands of dollars for a 4 week expedition, you can even find tribes that live in treehouses, having very little contact with the outside world.
It's about time to get back to Wamena. Some of you would have died all those days without phone, electricity, eating only sweet potatoes , drinking boiled water from the river and sleeping on the floor with mice visiting during the night.
Right away to our next adventure- let us introduce Alex to you all.
Cruel and unique: the members of the Dani tribe cut off their fingers as a way of displaying their grief at the deaths of relatives.
Near Wamena you can also find well-preserved traditional villages
Bottom line- in Papua there's all about Koteka.
Oh my, lots of locals have their mouth coloured in red. But even they are not canibals. It's from chewing the cancer-causing Betel Nut.
So, are there still canibals hidden in the dark jungle of Papua NewGuinea? Maybe. But, are you sure you want to meet them?
Filmed october 2017 with
4k actioncam Qudos
SONY Handycam HDR-CX690E
Samsung S7 Edge
Iphone 6s
I, Adrian am a former TV-moderator & producer of travel documentaries
I, Alecsandra, am a dentist. And his wife :)
We are from Romania, but live now in Austria. We love to share our passion for traveling, filming & having fun. That's why our EveryDay HoliDay vlog into life! We will post once in a week, every monday.
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additional music: Daniel Galea (Danny G)-
photos (intro): Calin Andra -